Flotation process



Patented Sept. 17,1935

2,i,lli

E. I. du Pont de Nemo urs & Company, Wilmington, Del, a corporation of Delaware No Drawing. Application August 16, 1933, Serial No. 685,425

8 Claims.

This invention relates to the treatment of ores, metallurgical products, and like heterogeneous materials containing compounds of the useful or more or less valuable metals and has for its object to provide improvement in the separation of the compounds in question by flotation, and particularlyby froth flotation, from the components of the materials treated.

In accordance with the present invention it 10 has been discovered that in the flotation treatment of ores to separate the desirable constituents therefrom, liquid media containing a mixture of sulfides, mercaptans, disulfides, polysulfldes, mercaptals, thionals and equivalent derivatives of the mixture of oxygenated organic compounds obtained from the catalytic hydrogenation of carbon oxides under elevated temperatures and pressures are effective in separating the gangue from the ore according to the well known principles of froth flotation. In this process the action of the mixture of sulfides and equivalent compounds may be either to concentrate the mineral in the froth or foam and to separate the mineral from the gangue, or the action may be to concentrate the desired mineral in the form of a dispersed gangue from which the other matter is separated.

An object of the present invention is to provide new and improved frothing agents. Another obing agent which will develop a brittle and impermanent froth of sufficient buoyancy to float the mineral particles and yet of such an impermanent nature that upon removal from the activating apparatus it rapidly and completely collapses, thus affording easy separation of the mineral particles therefrom. A still further object of the invention comprises a process for the froth flotation of minerals involving the use of the mixture of the sulfides, mercaptans, the disulfides, polysulfides, and mercaptals of the higher boiling oxygenated organic compounds obtained from the catalytic hydrogenation of carbon oxides under elevated temperatures and pressures. Other objects and advantages will hereinafter appear.

My preferred frothing agents are derived from the following source. In the catalytic hydrogenation of carbon oxides under elevated temperatures and pressures a variety of straight and branch chained organic compounds containing oxygen are made.- These organic compounds have a boiling point ranging from about 50 C. to a temperature of 250 C. and higher. Various methods have been proposed for manufacturing ject of the present invention is to provide a froththese compounds, as, for example, the method described in the U. S. application of Roger Williams, now U. S. Patent 1,820,417. The portions of the mixture of oxygenated organic compounds obtained by Williams and equivalent processes, from 5 which portions I generally prefer to prepare my flotation agents, are those boiling from a temperature of approximately C. up. This portion boiling from 90 C. up has been fractionated systematically into a series of fractions, namely, 10 -130; -147; 147-457; 15'7--195; 240; and 240 up. My flotation agents are made from these fractions or any other desired fraction or mixture thereof, each of which contains a plurality of organic compounds.

My flotation agents may be obtained, for example, by reacting any of the above fractions with a sulfonating agent and then with an alkali sulfide or alkali hydrogen sulfide as disclosed in the copending application of D. J. Loder, Ser. No. 20 685,418.

For example, the particular fraction or mixture of fractions isreacted with a strong sulfating agent such as sulfuric acid of from 96-100% strength, fuming sulfuric acid, chlorsulfuric acid, 20 sulfur trioxide, and the like. The resulting ester is neutralized with alkali or alkaline earth caustic and the alkali salts then reacted with sodium sulfide or an equivalent alkali or alkaline earth sulfide to give the sulfide and mercaptan of the 30 higher oxygenated organic compounds, or with a sodium hydrogen sulfide to give almost exclusively the mercaptans of these compounds. Due, of course, to the heterogeneous character of the higher oxygenated organic compounds the resulting product consists of a mixture of many different sulfidesand mercaptans of the compounds present in the mixture treated. The disulfides are obtained by oxidizing the sodium salt of the mercaptan with iodine or sulfuryl chloride and the mercaptals by reacting the mercaptan with an aldehyde as described in the aforesaid application.

While it is an object of the present invention to treat ores generally in the presence of my flotation agents, the process is applicable with particular efii oiency to the treatment of non-sulfide bearing ores, for example, phosphate rock, limestone, phosphite, pyrites, zircon, and ilmenite.

The quantityof my flotation agents which may be used for the treatment of a given gangue may vary within wide limits. Ordinarily, the amount used will be in the order of 1-100 parts or more to one million parts of water.

. possible, therefore, to obtain flotation agents having varying degrees of chemical and physical properties with corresponding variation in flotation ability. The expert in this art, from this group of flotation agents, may then select those which are most eflicient for application to his particular separation problem.

Any improvement to the process or products disclosed in the present specification will come within the scope of the invention without sacriflcing any of the advantages that may be derived therefrom.

I claim:

1. In the froth flotation process of treating ores, the step which comprises utilizing as a flotation agent the mixture of oxygenated organic compounds obtained by the catalytic hydrogenation of carbon oxides under elevated temperatures and pressures converted to sul-- phide and mer'captan.

2. In the froth flotation process of treating ores, the step which comprises utilizing as a flotation agent the mixture of the oxygenated organic compounds obtained by the catalytic hydrogenation of carbon oxides under elevated temperatures and pressures converted to a derlvative of a mixture of sulphides and'mercaptans.

3. In the froth flotation process of treating ores, the step. which comprises utilizing as a flotation agent the mixture of the oxygenated organic compounds obtained by the catalytic hydrogenation of carbon oxides under elevated temperatures and pressures, which has been converted into a sulfide derivative.

4. In the froth flotation process of treating ores, the step which comprises utilizing as a flotation agent the mixture of the oxygenated organic compounds obtained by the catalytic hydrogenation of carbon *oxides under elevated temperatures and pressures, which has been converted into a mixture of sulfides.

5. In the froth flotation process of treating ores, the step which comprises utilizing as a flotation agent the mixture of the oxygenated organic compounds obtained by the catalytic hydrogenation of carbon oxides under elevated temperatures and pressures, boiling between 130 C. and 240 C., which has been converted into a mixture of sulfides.

6. In the froth flotation process of treating ores, the step which comprises utilizing as a tation agent the mixture of the oxygenated organic compounds obtained by the catalytic hydrogenation of carbon oxides under elevated temperatures and pressures, boiling between C. and 147 C., which has been converted into a mixture of sulfldes.

;7. In the froth flotation process of treating ores, the step which comprises utilizing as a flotation agent the mixture of the oxygenated organic compounds obtained by the catalytic hydrogenation of carbon oxides under elevated temperatures and pressures, boiling between 157 C. and C., which has been converted into a mixture of sulfides.

8. In the froth flotation process of treating ores, the step which comprises utilizing as a flotation agent the mixture of the oxygenated organic compounds obtained by the catalytic hydrogenation of carbon oxides under elevated temperatures and pressures, boiling between 240 C. and up, which has been converted into a mixture of sulfides.

CHARLES L. BURDICK. 

